“Education without common sense is like piling a bunch of books
on the back of an ass” – John H. Corbett , Sr. (my Dad)
——
Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov, was a former Soviet KGB agent who defected to Canada. During a 1985 interview which is offered in the video link below, he states incredible insights to many tactics, which may well be at play in 2023. If you have not previously reviewed the video, I would strongly suggest that you take ten minutes and learn about what is termed as “ideological subversion.” Ideological subversion is defined as a psychological warfare tool to change what people believe or change the perception of reality. As an offensive tactic by hostile intelligence services, large quantities of misinformation and deception are used as weapons against competing nations or political systems. The purpose of such propaganda driven methodology is to attack people at the psychological level in a bid to destabilize and undermine the entire ideological structure of a nation. The ultimate goal is the complete collapse of the target society.
At this point, I would like to offer two quick anecdotes that I think are relevant.
Years ago, I was playing in my usual Saturday morning pick-up basketball game which occurred every week without fail and brought a cross-section of guys ages 35-60 together. Not one participant knew the origins of this outdoor game – it is still played to this day – but all enjoyed the competition and the early-morning California sun. In between games conversations would turn to various subjects and this day, we talked about careers, which was extremely rare. The reason I bring this up now was a shocking comment that was made by a high school teacher and athletic coach. He termed me as a “righteous capitalist” and meant it as a compliment. Keep in mind, this was years before CRT, White Privilege, or any reasonable person would offer socialism as an alternative economic system. At that point, Bernie Sanders was some obscure name and yet here was this strange comment by an educator. It was offered as a compliment but clearly intended it to mean I was one of the few good ones.
Fast forward several years and during the second Obama presidential term, I was attending a cocktail party, and the conversation turned to politics. I voiced disagreement with one of Obama’s recent decisions (do not recall which one) and the Notre Dame graduate I was speaking with called me a racist. This was someone whom I was friendly with, had known for years and he had enjoyed the hospitality of my home. He didn’t even flitch when I informed him that I voted for Obama for his first term. My sheer audacity to disagree with one policy was enough for this person to go off the deep end.
These events represent two small moments in my life but have stuck with me. What strikes me is that the apparent war on capitalism and political dissent (discussion) has been going on for years. How did we get here? While this is not a political column, nevertheless, I simply cannot walk past recent events that have both economic and free market ramifications. I do not offer any answers but certainly have questions. Recently, I came across the video below and found it beyond thought provoking. From my perspective, recent political and economic events go to prove that common sense is the highest level of intelligence. Thanks, Dad, for drilling that into my head.
